Buying In by Rob Walker - Book review

Buying In

The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

By: Rob Walker

Published: June 3, 2008
ISBN: 9781400063918
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: Random House Inc






"This book is about the secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are, and how it is changing" writes best selling author and journalist Rob Walker in his important book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. This powerful book is nothing short of a deconstruction of marketing itself, from both the seller's side, as well as from the consumer's point of view.

Rob Walker understands that part of the secret inner dialogue, is reconciling the idea of being an individual, with being part of something larger than oneself. Brands enable the consumer to differentiate personally while at the same time, sharing in becoming part of a larger group. In a society saturated with brand images, no one is immune from marketing messages. For the author, the power within the consumer is turning a brand into a symbol other than intended by its original marketers. For example, supporting a brand perceived to be outside of the mainstream, provides individuality while sharing in a larger group, helping to resolve the inner dialogue conflict.



Rob Walker (photo left) recognizes that changes are taking place in the marketing of products everywhere. His coining of the term murketing describes how marketing can be very opaque and the message placed entirely outside of traditional marketing channels. The author states that the consumer has the power to click away from advertisements in any media. As a result, the empowered consumer can avoid mainstream marketing messages entirely. To combat the power of the click, the marketing industry embraced underground techniques, with varying levels of success. In many cases, as the book demonstrates, consumers create their own marketing messages, and form customer bases thought outside of the target market entirely.

For me, the power of the book is the complete deconstruction of the modern marketing problem. Marketers discovered that products are purchased for reasons other than thought originally, turning target and demographic marketing upside down. Indeed, the author's powerful dissection, of under the radar marketing through underground techniques and channels outside of traditional methods, illustrates the future of marketing in a brand saturated world. The book is prophetic in how marketing evolves to shape, and be shaped by, how and why people buy products and services.

I highly recommend the landmark book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker, whose brilliant pioneering work will change the way you view marketing forever. The traditional marketing techniques and axioms are becoming obsolete before our very eyes, and Rob Walker provides a front row seat for decoding that sea change in the industry.

Read the destined to be classic book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker, and learn how underground murketing, and new approaches to branding are changing the landscape for marketers. Since the inner dialogue about why we buy is always changing, and is a rapidly moving target, marketers must embrace the future or fall by the wayside.

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